Chicano theater is a part of Spanish-speaking theater in the United States and began as early as the Spanish conquistadors in the 16th century. With settlement expansion and growth, San Francisco and Los Angeles also grew as major centers of Hispanic theater. Hispanic ethnic identities and traditions spread alongside the transportation boom of the 19th century, taking theater performance along with it. 20th century Chicano theater includes musical revues and serious plays exploring Chicano-centric obstacles – including acculturation and language barriers. Chicano theater grew again in the 1960s with the migrant worker’s cause and the reality of Chicano workers. Bilingualism and the conflict of migrant “cultural identity” is still a recurring theme in contemporary Chicano Theater. Hispanic theater primarily contemporarily reflects three main country backgrounds – Mexico, Cuba, and Puerto Rico.
20th century Cuban-American theater was also a part of Hispanic theater, but was primarily visible through Cuban black-face. The 1959 Cuban Revolution also led to an influx of theater activity, with some playwrights longing for their old culture and being forced to become U.S. refugees. Puerto-Rican theater in the United States grew out of a theatrical culture that was extremely limited. It also explores themes of transculturation, but has significant diversity with the use of Puerto-Rican playwrights, the use of Spanish, English or “Spanglish” plays, using allegory, graphic interactions, or the “consequences” of assimilation, and the idea of searching for identity while surrounded by isolation.
Chicano theater is a part of Spanish-speaking theater in the United States and began as early as the Spanish conquistadors in the 16th century. With settlement expansion and growth, San Francisco and Los Angeles also grew as major centers of Hispanic theater. Hispanic ethnic identities and traditions spread alongside the transportation boom of the 19th century, taking theater performance along with it. 20th century Chicano theater includes musical revues and serious plays exploring Chicano-centric obstacles – including acculturation and language barriers. Chicano theater grew again in the 1960s with the migrant worker’s cause and the reality of Chicano workers. Bilingualism and the conflict of migrant “cultural identity” is still a recurring theme in contemporary Chicano Theater. Hispanic theater primarily contemporarily reflects three main country backgrounds – Mexico, Cuba, and Puerto Rico.
20th century Cuban-American theater was also a part of Hispanic theater, but was primarily visible through Cuban black-face. The 1959 Cuban Revolution also led to an influx of theater activity, with some playwrights longing for their old culture and being forced to become U.S. refugees. Puerto-Rican theater in the United States grew out of a theatrical culture that was extremely limited. It also explores themes of transculturation, but has significant diversity with the use of Puerto-Rican playwrights, the use of Spanish, English or “Spanglish” plays, using allegory, graphic interactions, or the “consequences” of assimilation, and the idea of searching for identity while surrounded by isolation.